ited States. It is amphibious, like the musk-rat, is a most
expert swimmer, and makes its nest, or "form," on the edge of the
morass, where it sleeps all day, sallying forth morning and evening for
a swim in search of the delicate water-plants upon which it feeds. The
young ones enter the water at a very early age, and may be seen paddling
about with the mother on a hunt for breakfast.

Tame hares make very pretty pets. They are very stupid about learning
tricks, and are said to have very short memories. Hares which have
escaped from their masters, and have been recaptured after a few days of
freedom, have been found to be entirely wild, as if they retained no
remembrance, even for that short time, of all the petting which had been
bestowed upon them. Dr. Benjamin Franklin is said to have had a pet hare
which lived on the most friendly terms with a greyhound and cat, and
would share the hearth-rug with them in the winter.

William Cowper, the English poet, had three pet hares, to which he was
much attached, and about which he wrote many pretty things. They were
given to him when they were leverets, as a hare is called during the
first year of its life, and he named them Puss, Bess, and Tiney. He
built them houses to sleep in, and always kept them near him. Bess, who
died soon after he was full grown, "was," writes Cowper, "a hare of
great humor and drollery. Puss was tamed by gentle usage; Tiney was not
to be tamed at all." Once poor Puss was sick. His master nursed him with
the greatest care. He says: "No creature could be more grateful than my
patient after his recovery--a sentiment which he most significantly
expressed by licking my hand, first the back of it, then the palm, then
every finger separately, then between all the fingers, as if anxious to
leave no part of it unsaluted; a ceremony which he never performed but
once again, upon a similar occasion."

Upon Tiney the kindest treatment had no effect. If his master ventured
to stroke him, he would grunt, strike with his fore-feet, spring
forward, and bite. Tiney lived to be nine years old, and died from the
effects of a fall. Puss survived him two years. A memorandum found among
Cowper's papers reads: "This day died poor Puss, aged eleven years,
eleven months. He died between twelve and one at noon, of mere old age,
and apparently without pain."

The poet was so fond of his pets that he buried them in his garden, and
wrote an epitaph on Tiney, from which we ta